Hey everybody, I'm an 18 year old guy from VA, and this is my first day on this forum, so yell at me if I don't give you enough information to respond right! =]

Around late December I got a 2003 Jetta GLX 1.8T.
I think the base price for that is somewhere around $30,000 USD? It was where I live...
Anyway, we got it as a service car, used for like Enterprise or whoever for renting it out, so it was used, but only had about 13,000 miles on it, and everything works wonderfully, so that brought the dealer down to about like 24 or $23,000 USD, but the guy was in a slump or something so we messed the shit out of him and held off until he was desperate. Ended up getting the car at a loss to the dealership around the 25th. Wonderful Christmas miracle, bought it for somewhere around 14 or 15,000. The car now has about 20,000 miles on it, and is used mostly for city driving and short freeway trips.

Ok, so here are my questions (you've come this far...=])... You can respond to any and all of these as you like and are able.

1. For anyone familiar, how much does a tiptronic manual gate as opposed to a straight manual transmission hinder the performance?
2. For anyone familiar with Chips... are they a good idea? Is there a better one out there?
3. For exhaust, can anyone testify to some real power gains? Are there any other benefits?
4. Is there anything I can do at home, like with valves or oil etc... to improve performance?
5. Is body styling (skirts, spoilers, etc...) worth the costs? Does it help anything but looks?
6. Can anyone testify to real beneficial changes in handling or performance with a suspension kit and alloy wheels?
7. Is there anything else out there to consider, either with these mods or others? What more can be done to a Jetta engine to improve it, and what kind of costs would that be?

Thank you to ANY and ALL responses. I know it's a long one, but I really appreciate any help on this topic as I am new to it...
Thanks again, Nick.